DIVERSITY OFCHILD LABOUR AND ITS CAUSES IN DOWNTRODDEN FAMILIES IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES - EVIDENCE FROM ODISHA, INDIA

Child Labour, the global phenomenon is still existing in India due to lack of proper execution of programme and policies. Poverty, lack of parental guidance, lack of awareness about programs and influence of peer groups were the key countless reasons, which create a barrier to an individual as well as societal development. Global information shows that boys were more indulged in the labour market, however, trends have been changed now compared to earlier decades. Hence, the paper tried to comprehend the issue of child labour, its causes, reasons of drop out of school, and the effect of parents working status and familys condition on child labour. Primary cross-sectional research was conducted with an explorative research design, and information was sought from 300 samples randomly, across the Sambalpur district. The information was collected through a pre-tested and semi-structured questionnaire in the year 2019-20. Bivariate analysis was conducted in SPSS to understand the cause of child labour with different parameters and depict that parents economic and their working status do not influence much on the decision whether the child goes to the labour market or not. Besides, large family size and family type, majority parents incurred the income on alcohol consumption and maintenance of the family, which restrict them to think about their children education. The study recommends understanding the local need of the downtrodden family before executing the child labour policy as peer influence and self-interest to become child labour has been identified as a prime reason in the study.